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Rule of Law, Human Rights and Legal Aid in Southeast Asia and China
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Report of The Practitioner's Forum
9-12 June, 1999, Bangkok - Thailand
The idea for the Legal Aid Practitioner's Forum originated from
the International Human Rights Law Group's Cambodian Defender's Project
(CDP). Established in 1994, CDP started as a training program for
Cambodian activists to become free legal assistance providers to the poor facing
criminal prosecutions in Cambodia. The Project has long since expanded to
include civil complaints, women's legal issues, freedom of the press issues, and
land disputes.
Rule of law is a politically neutral concept. The
question that enveloped that Practitioner's Forum was this: The rule of what
law? Recognizing that law can be a weapon of domination and oppression, or
law can be an instrument of social change, participants in the forum talked
about "strategic lawyering" - the role that lawyers play in transformative
change. Seen in that context, the role of lawyers is to empower the
disadvantaged, expand the political space for opposition, remove the obstacles
to mobilization of civil society, reform oppressive structures and give a voice
to those who have been silenced in communities where oppression
reigns.
This booklet was compiled to present a summary of the Legal Aid
Practitioner's Forum in hopes of assisting activists in strategic decisions
about the methodology for societal change, as well as to further understandings
of the roles activists play in strategic lawyering.
Published in October 2000 by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and
International Human Rights Law Group (IHRLG), 151 pages, ISBN - 962-8314-10-6 /
962-8314-10-0
Hong Kong : HK$ 60.00
Outside Hong Kong
: US$ 25.00
Inclusive of postage
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Posted on 2000-10-23
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